Russian President Vladimir Putin
Where is Russian President Vladimir Putin coming from? Where is he going?
The questions above are on the minds of most of the civilized world today. That world doesn’t include half of the Russians who have no access to outside information and have no idea of the thousands of deaths Mr. Putin is causing — many of them his own soldiers.
I was wondering how many dachas — vacation homes — President Putin owns, so I Googled it. One article showed pictures of eight of these homes. Another tells of two more homes that he took over when he annexed Crimea. Another shows a “secret palace” that he owns, etc. Some of these mansions are “officially” owned by the government but used by Mr. Putin and other government higher-ups.
Why do people in power need to accumulate more riches, more dachas, more countries? I remember when a high school student I taught complained to me about another teacher. He said, “You can’t demand respect. You’ve got to command it.” Very wise words for a young person, or even an old person!
President Putin doesn’t command respect; he demands it. He seems to epitomize the description of a bully: A scared person hiding inside a scary person. He is like the Stalins and Hitlers who have preceded him. How else could a person come to such cruelty toward so many, unless he was cruelly treated himself? I understand that his father beat him when he was young.
You can never get enough external things to make up for internal poverty, the real problem. I suspect that the concepts of “I am not good enough,” “I will show them,” “I will make them respect me,” are floating deep within his psyche. He comes from the inner world of “not enoughness.”
Why does President Putin need Chechnya, Crimea, Ukraine, etc.? Because he thinks he will “be enough”? No, he won’t! External things can’t fulfill that frozen internal need.
It seems that the same drive applies to us in our desire to accumulate money: The more I have, the better I am.
I recently saw an interview of Melinda French Gates, ex-wife of Bill Gates. She and Bill still work together in running their foundation. It has about $50 billion, which they use to try to end poverty, disease and inequity around the world. She said that anyone who has $1 billion can easily give away half of that amount, and not have their life any worse for it for it.
What bothers me about the concept of “charity” is that rich and poor alike use the phrasing: “I gave away $5 or $5 billion.” Shouldn’t we be saying, “I gave back $5 or $5 billion”?”
The goods of the earth, the universe and our own personal existence are all gifts to us. Everything we have or achieve is borrowed/rented, until our lease on life is up. Whether we rise to riches through the legitimate exchange of goods and services (Mr. Gates), or through criminal stealth (Mr. Putin), it all comes from the same source: the goods of the earth and the energy of people who delivered them.
We can commandeer far beyond our needs because we use money to control the goods and services. If we have a lot of money and return it to its sources, we are giving back, not giving away.
I am not bashing the rich. However, whether riches were gained legitimately or not, those riches (Crimea, Ukraine, dachas, yachts, oil wells, farmlands, shares of stocks in companies, oil futures, etc.) need to be returned, given back. Many of the rich, like the Gates, already do this.
President Putin’s “need” to accumulate countries is similar to the “need” to accumulate millions or billions of dollars. If the purpose of accumulation is to “be important,” you have already lost.
Who knows what’s in the hearts of men — and women — whether they are “hundredaires” or billionaires? I know that Melinda and Bill Gates are trying to make a difference for the poor of the world – who do not cause their poverty.
At the same time, I am still worried that there is some very bright, insecure man somewhere in the world who has the word “trillion” in the back of his head, so that he can become really, really, really important someday.
Where is Mr. Putin going?
I have a plan: Billionaires of the world, unite! Put your money to work! Get together (oligarchs welcome) and offer a prize of $100 billion to the group that gets rid of Mr. Putin and his cronies (no questions asked)! However, you must have a plan for democracy for Russia that is to be approved by the Russian people and the United Nations. (Nobody in your group will be allowed to hold office.) The elections will be monitored by the U.N.
Oh, and, of course, you must get Russian armies out of the lands that don’t belong to them.
Frank Sanitate
The author lives in Santa Barbara.
